Fire guts most of 1.5-acre Bremerton furniture store

BREMERTON — On one side was a successful Bremerton furniture business that had grown to occupy more than 1.5 acres; on the other were more than 125 firefighters from Kitsap County and beyond — from as far as Pierce County. In the middle was a stubborn fire.

On Monday, the fire won.

Starting just after 2 a.m. and extending through most of the day, firefighters battled the blaze that claimed Arnold's Home Furnishings on Kitsap Way, a local business that has operated since 1951.

By Monday afternoon, all that remained of the east side of the sprawling 66,000-square-foot building was mostly charred. The fire started somewhere on that side, and investigators do not yet know what may have started it.

"We have to sift through it piece by piece," Bremerton Fire Marshal Mike Six said. The investigation could take up to two weeks.

A newer section of the building — added on in 1994 to house La-Z-Boy and later Broyhill Gallery — had a sprinkler system and other modern firefighting technology and remained standing.

Aside from water damage, "you wouldn't even know there was a fire" on the Broyhill side, Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said.

It was unclear Monday whether the insurance company would write off the whole building.